Arthur Wellesley

Also known as Capt. Arthur Richard Wellesley, Captain Arthur Richard Wellesley, Arthur Richard Wellesley

Born: 1804
Died: August 21, 1830

Family

Gerald Valerian Wellesleyfather Lady Emily Cadoganmother William Wellesleysibling Georgiana Wellesleysibling Emily Wellesleysibling Cecil Elizabeth Jane Wellesleysibling George Wellesleysibling Mary Wellesleysibling

Also known as Capt. Arthur Richard Wellesley, Captain Arthur Richard Wellesley, Arthur Richard Wellesley

Notable quotes

“It is quite impossible for me or any other man to command a British Army under the existing system. We have in the service the scum of the earth as common soldiers; and of late years we have been doing everything in our power, both by law and by publications, to relax the discipline by which alone such men can be kept in order.”
— "What Wellington Said", Adventures In Historyland (2 July 1813)
“It has been a damned serious business... Blucher and I have lost 30,000 men. It has been a damned nice thing — the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life. … By God! I don't think it would have been done if I had not been there.”
— Remark to Thomas Creevey (18 June 1815), using the word nice in an older sense of "uncertain, delicately balanced", about the Battle of Waterloo. Creevy, a civilian, got a public interview with Wellington at headquarters, and quoted the remark in his book Creevey Papers (1903), in Ch. X, on p. 236; the phrase "a damned nice thing" has sometimes been paraphrased as "a damn close-run thing."
“I used to say of him that his presence on the field made the difference of forty thousand men.”
— On Napoleon Bonaparte, in notes for 2 November 1831; later, in the notes for 18 September 1836, he is quoted as saying:
“They wanted this iron fist to command them.”
— Of troops sent to the Canadian frontier in the War of 1812, in notes for 8 November 1840.
“We always have been, we are, and I hope that we always shall be, detested in France.”
— As quoted in Wellington and His Friends (1965) by Gerald Wellesley, 7th Duke of Wellington, p. 138, and in The Economist (16 June 2005)
“At first it was a lie, then a strong delusion, and at last downright madness.”
— Wellington's assessment of George IV's claims that he had been present at the Battle of Waterloo as later recalled by Earl Russell, quoted in Lady John Russell: A Memoir (1910), edited by Desmond McCarthy and Agatha Russell. p. 221

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.

About Arthur Wellesley

About Arthur Wellesley

Notable quotes

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